Re: A Time To Heal - Makshim, Shiezin 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

Wren waved his protest away. "If there weren't someone else already in here, I'd be concerned," she said dismissively. "But being as that's not the case, I'm not overly concerned."

A sudden twinkle appeared in her eyes, sleepy though she was. "My father would have a conniption, however. Fortunately, he's not here."

She stepped aside and motioned for him to come in. "Pardon the mess."

And it was messier than usual. It had clearly been a few days at least since she had put any care into tidying up. Her floor was just about covered. In fact, the only clear spot was where she had been lying on one side of her futon. Khetal was still curled up on the other side.

[Kara Winters]

Hikaru stepped in and tried his best not to laugh. His mother would have a conniption if this had been his room. He had friends whose rooms were like this, it was like his teenage years all over again.

He wasn't quite sure where he should stand but he shuffled off to the side so he wouldn't step on anything.

[Nara-pyon]

Wren tiptoed through the mess and sat on the futon next to Khetal again.

"Khetal," she said, shaking his shoulder, "time to get up. It's dinner time."

Khetal groaned and rolled over onto his other side. "Do I have to?"

Wren chuckled softly and ran her fingers through his hair. "Yes, you do. Come on. Huron is waiting for you."

With another groan, Khetal turned onto his back and cracked his eyes open. "Sleepy," he mumbled.

[Kara Winters]

"Food helps," Hikaru offered, "And Daenis and... Mailon were making meals for people to grab and go when I was in the kitchen earlier."

If that was what Khetal needed.

[Nara-pyon]

"There you go," Wren grinned, "food's ready to go." She flicked the tip of his ear.

"Hey!" Almost in slow motion, Khetal slapped her hand away and sat up. "All right, I'm getting up."

His stomach rumbled just then, and he grimaced. "Ugh ... all right, so I'm hungrier than I thought I was."

Wren sighed. "If I didn't know you well enough to know you'd argue to the moon and back," she murmured, "I'd make you take breaks during those sessions. You really ought to have done, you know."

"Mm." He yawned. "All right. Food. Lead the way."

[Kara Winters]

"Are you sure you want me to be leading?" Hikaru asked with good humour.

Though it was a pretty simple layout once he understood where things roughly were, so he could lead the way back to the kitchen if needed.

[Nara-pyon]

Wren chuckled softly. "I'll lead. For those who haven't been with the tent since the beginning, it can be pretty confusing."

She took Khetal by the arm and helped him to his feet and began to lead both him and Huron down the hall to the kitchen.

"So, Huron," she said as they went, "tell us about yourself. Where are you from originally? How did you meet Ahkshi and Kyrie?"

[Kara Winters]

"I travel around," Huron explained, "I happened to have wandered into town and helped out Ahkshi by providing herbs to earn my keep. Medicine is my specialty, and I tend to just travel from place to place picking plants for medicine and then providing treatment wherever I go."

It was a nice thing to bond over actually, at least then he had something mildly in common with Ahkshi.

[Nara-pyon]

Khetal laughed softly. "Like Ahkshi and Kyrie rolled into one. Are you planning on sticking around now that the crisis is over? At least, the craziest part of it? I don't know how long you've been here or how long you were planning on staying originally ..."

"Ahkshi did mention you had been staying with him," Wren added. "I suppose now that Kyrie's back, they might want some privacy ..."

"If that's the case, you're welcome to my room for a while," Khetal offered. "Or we could have a room made for you. It would save you inn fees, at the very least."

[Kara Winters]

"I would greatly appreciate that offer," Hikaru admitted, "Besides, your whole group has me quite curious now. Fortunately... I just arrived in town a few days ago, and even better, I'm never in a rush."

It gave him the perfect excuse to find out more about this group, the people and glean about where they were from and where they were going.

[Nara-pyon]

Khetal smiled. "Then it's settled. Whoever we see first, Cael, Lancaeriel or Miyuki, we'll ask to make a guest room. I hope you don't mind sleeping on a futon, like mine that you slept on last night."

"Speaking of," Wren murmured as a door slid open ahead of them. Cael stepped into the hallway, followed by his wife, and slid their door closed behind them. They started off towards the foyer as well.

"Cael! Lancaeriel!" Khetal called out.

The couple stopped and turned around to look. Both still looked very tired, but neither of them looked annoyed at being stopped.

"Yes?" Cael asked through a groggy smile.

[Kara Winters]

"Hey," Hikaru waved at the two, "Are you both heading to the kitchen as well?"

It sounded like they both just woke up as well, which wouldn't surprise Hikaru at all.

[Nara-pyon]

"As much as we would both prefer to stay in bed until breakfast tomorrow," Lancaeriel murmured, "neither of us ate before going to sleep, and we're paying for it."

"I'm starving," Cael groaned, a little dramatically, putting his hands to his belly.

Lancaeriel sighed and leaned against him, her exhausted version of slapping his arm. Looking at Huron, she smiled. "Thank you for your help today. It made things much more manageable." Too tired to hold out a hand, she bowed her head slightly. "I'm Lancaeriel."

"Cael," Cael added, holding one hand out to Huron.

[Kara Winters]

Hikaru took Cael's hand and shook it, "Huron."

The man replied with ease. He noted that the two looked really tired, so a good meal would do them good.

"How about we all walk together to the kitchen then?" Hikaru suggested, "I already ate a bit earlier, but I don't mind sticking around."

[Nara-pyon]

When the two shook hands, Cael felt something ... off ... but he was so dozy that he couldn't put his finger on it. He simply smiled and nodded and put his hands on his wife's shoulders and turned her around, pointing her the other direction.

Wren giggled. "I've never seen either of them like this," she confided to Khetal and Huron as they continued on their way again. "This is amusing."

[Kara Winters]

"It is?" Hikaru didn't understand why it was amusing but he had just met the two.

Maybe they were more serious? Or maybe it was just the impression that they were in more control? There was something to be said about those who studied magic, and if this tent was their work, they must have studied it for a very long time.

In the kitchen, Miyuki was grabbing a bento box. She too had gone to sleep before eating, and now was up and about. Hopefully, she would be able to sleep later on tonight, her early rising habit would made tomorrow for a long day if she couldn't.

[Nara-pyon]

"Lancaeriel is usually very much aware and very much in control," Wren replied slowly, trying to explain it in a way that Huron would understand. "Cael ... isn't usually this calm. He's very playful with his wife, and sometimes childish in his actions. So to see him calm and her ... well, out of it ... is very odd. And a little amusing."

"Only for you," Khetal smiled.

She giggled at him. "You're not much more awake, you know."


In the kitchen, Daenis had gone off to lay down and so was no longer in there, but Mailon was working on the remainder of the dishes.

"Have you had enough rest?" he asked Miyuki as she took a bento box. "You were only asleep a few hours."

[Kara Winters]

"And you are?" Hikaru asked good naturally.

He didn't know how Wren was normally though, so it was just a guess on his part.

Miyuki paused for a moment, "At least enough to eat. If I sleep too much now I'll be up even earlier than usual, and I'm already a pretty early riser."

Besides, with people having napped earlier and then getting up to eat, the tent was oddly busy this time of night. Miyuki could sense the movement of people within the tent, it was a bit harder with all the separate planes though.

[Nara-pyon]

"More awake than Khetal," Wren grinned. "While I do readily admit that I'm not used to this kind of pace - usually - I do seem to recover from it more easily than some. I honestly feel quite awake, now that I'm walking around a bit. That's not to say that a bit of food won't go amiss," she added, a twinkle in her eye, "but I do feel rather alert."

"And smart-alecky," Khetal mumbled, rubbing his face in an attempt to wake himself.


"True," Mailon agreed. "I have to say, I've always been impressed by how early you always seem to be about."

He finished with the dishes and dried his hands on a towel and looked up as Cael and Lancaeriel entered the kitchen. They both looked very tired, and neither of them spoke - and possibly not even notice the other two in the room - as Cael helped Lancaeriel into a chair and flopped into the one next to her.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki smiled as she set down her own bento box and went to get boxes for her teacher and her teacher's husband. It was during this act that Hikaru came into the kitchen with Khetal and Wren. He was chuckling at the couple, they were quite amusing.

Looking to see if Daenis and Mailon were still there, he was surprised to see a seven-tailed kitsune getting boxes. He didn't know why he was surprised, Khetal had told him hours before about a kitsune who helped make this tent, but it was still something else to see one.

Her colouring was actually pretty natural for a kitsune. He assumed if it weren't for the fact she had seven tails, her fox form could pass off as a local fox (granted unusually large fox at this point). He couldn't tell her age from her tails, but with this whole world being full of danger and extreme learning curves, he would assume she was young as any kitsune would grow up quickly around here.

It was only when said kitsune set down the bento boxes in front of Cael and Lancaeriel, and then turned to greet the others that came in, that Hikaru realized he made a slight error. Kitsunes were infamous for their illusions, most specialized in just that. If anyone could see through his illusion it would be a kitsune.

"Uhm.... hi? Sorry for staring?" he asked this as a question and once more hoped he was right.

She looked at him in a way that he swore she was looking through him, and he mentally sweated a bit before she smiled.

"That's okay, I'm use to that," Miyuki replied, "I'm Miyuki."

"Huron," Hikaru replied, resisting the urge to bow in a greeting, "Ah... nice to meet you."

Maybe she didn't notice? He hoped she didn't.

Miyuki was slightly confused as to why she was sensing large magic reserves from him.

[Nara-pyon]

Wren chuckled, and as Khetal sat down, she moved to make some coffee for everyone - something she knew would wake them up.

"Miyuki is a kitsune," she told Huron, grinning. "I have no idea how it translate, but they're a fox-human race. Not from around here, as I'm sure you can surmise."

Cael and Lancaeriel started eating, and it didn't take long for them to begin waking up. With alertness came the awareness of stronger magic in the room than they were used to having around them. For the present, they were too busy eating to say anything about it, but they exchanged a glance - and each knew the other was thinking about the same thing.

[Kara Winters]

"Well when Akhshi said I will meet people I've never seen before, he wasn't exaggerating," Hikaru chuckled.

It was quite unexpected really, whatever Hikaru had been expecting, it wasn't this.

As Miyuki moved to get more bento boxes for everyone, Hikaru also added.

"It's okay, I already ate."

[Nara-pyon]

"I, on the other hand, will happily accept one," Wren announced, holding one hand out to Miyuki. "Thank you."

"One for me," Khetal said, holding out both hands, palms up.

Already the smell of coffee was wafting through the room, and suddenly Kaito entered, his nose tipped slightly upwards, sniffing as he came in. "Mmmmm," he exhaled slowly. "Coffeeeeeeeeeeee."

He headed to a cupboard for a mug, his hands already outstretched in anticipation.

[Kara Winters]

"Really Kaito?" Miyuki asked the neko as she handed out the boxes, "Where you just waiting for someone to brew coffee?"

Not that Miyuki understood the love of coffee, she preferred tea.

Hikaru couldn't help but chuckle at that, it was an amusing sight. It seemed coffee addiction was still a thing.

[Nara-pyon]

"Maybe," Kaito replied, sticking his tongue out at Miyuki. He set his mug on the counter next to where Wren was brewing the coffee, plopped his chin in his hands, and stared at the pot she was using. His wings unfolded slightly and then re-folded against his back again, and he ignored everything else that was going on in the room around him.

"So Huron," Cael spoke up, turning slightly towards him and looking at him, "feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but you must have studied magic somewhere along your travels. Lancaeriel and I have been studying magic since our first lives, and-" He gave a little cough of false modesty. "-we've grown rather adept at sensing it around us. If you don't mind my saying so, you're fairly oozing of magic."

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